Just received mine in good condition.
I love it very much powering it with Massdrop O2. Will compare it with m40x with hybrid pads.
Sound stage just wide enough, separation is just nice, compare to m40x with hybrid pads, m40x is narrower.
Treble is a tad less than m40x, so not as fatiguing for me compare to m40x.
Bass is the selling point of this is the bass. More present than m40x.
More comfortable than m40x, but fostex is A LOT heavier. And doesnt secure on head easily.
Has this plasticky smell though. Hope it goes away.
I should compare these with k240s though. Maybe later.
Thanks Massdrop!
AdrianLYeah, I noticed the odd smell to them as well when they arrived a few weeks ago. It may something applied to the leather band for curing or preserving? The pads are nice but like you say the overall weight takes some getting used to and you need to be careful moving around since they tend to slip. Anyway the smell does seem to be going away slowly. I'm pushing these with a Fostex HP-A3 DAC-amp which does OK on its own. Just added a Little Dot 1+ hybrid (w/ GE JAN-5654W tubes) amp going from the HP-A3's output connectors and it helped expand the sound on these a bit more and made the bass punchier which I like :)
AdrianLI got in on the first batch and bought two pair which did not have any smell. Might be the headstrap. You can actually replace that with a more comfortable one that can be found on amazon. I find that after about 3 hours I notice the strap start to hurt on my dome so I might replace mine with a softer one. Also the closed back mods some people do are neat. The smell though, I did not have to deal with that.
smallbithttps://www.reddit.com/r/ZReviews/comments/4th5n7/modding_guide_4_simple_but_extremely_effective/
I only did clay and cotton (step 2 and 3). Also it is very important not to have any cotton at the raised part of the cover. You will see that in this instruction.
Also you only need to remove 4 outter screws, and they use adheisve holding the cover and speaker unit together, so you will need a plastic plying tools to ply it open.
Also since left cup has headphone jack input unit, you will need to leave some clay out so it doesnt press on to the headphone jack unit when putting them back together